Frankfurt, J. Schmidt for S. Feyrabendt, 1580. Folio (300 x 195mm). ff. (4), 134, (4, the last blank), title printed in red and black with woodcut vignette, woodcut coat of arms, and 41 fine half or full-page woodcuts in the text. (Together with:) AGRICOLA, G. Bergwerck Buch: darinn nicht allain alle Empter, Instrument Gezeug, und alles, so zu diesem Handel gehörig, mit Figuren vorgebildet mit sonderm Fleyss teutscher Nation zu Gut verteutscht Frankfurt, J. Schmidt for S. Feyerabendt, 1580. Folio (300 x 195mm). pp. (8), ccccxci, (1 blank), (6), title printed in red and black, printer's device on colophon leaf, approximately 270 woodcuts by Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch, many full-page. Old overlapping vellum, with date 1714 on front cover. (I) A fine copy of the second edition (first Prague 1574), and together with Agricola's 'Bergwerck Buch' the most important work on mining in the 16th century. 'Ercker, along with Agricola and Biringuccio, was the chief spokesman in printed form for most of the metallurgical knowledge of the sixteenth century and his influence on later assaying literature was enormous. Working as chief inspector of the mines in Bohemia under Emperor Rudolf II, he systematically reviewed the methods of testing alloys and minerals, supervised smelting operations, and wrote with extraordinary clarity of the apparatus and operations involved' (Hoover 280)./(II) Second German edition (first German edition 1557) of Agricola's 'De re metallica' published in 1556. The copy lacks the 2 woodcut plates, which are always unnumbered. The 'first systematic treatise on
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1580. Very good condition with only minor split to upper hinge. Some external wear. Faint dampstain to lower margins. The manuscript seems to be either a compendium of excerpts related to Suarez' "De Simonia" or even an outline of the work. While it looks like a personal selection, a summary of chapters of the writer, the irregular corrrespondence of chapters between the manuscript and the finished work, allows us to speculate on this manuscript being a possible draft. The manuscript is quarto sized in contemporary vellum with the title penned on an upper spine compartment and the number 41 at the foot of the spine. The manuscript has a title page stating 'De Simonia' which precedes the 93 leaf treatise and is followed by two leaves of 'Index Capitum, que in hoc continentur tractatu'. The manuscript is in a regular forward sloping scribal hand with between 20 and 25 lines per page. The text is divided into 39 chapters. The Index reads: Index Capitum que in hoc continentur tractatu: I - Quid sit Simonia et uncle dicatur (identical with Chapter I of Suarez' "De Simonia" / II - Affectur divisio Simonie / III - An in peccato simoniae sit tantium malitia contra religionem an etiam contra justitiam (identical with chapter IV of "De Simonia) etc. / XVI An Beneficia Ecclesiastica sint materia Simonia Jure Divina nel Jure Ecclesiastico etc., etc. / Images of the work and the Index on request. . ca.1580-1620. 8°. 93 leaves ((2), 188 pages). Hardcover / Original pigskin. Very good condition with only minor split to upper hinge. Some external wear. Faint dampstain to lower margins.
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Frankfurt am Main, (Johann Georg Portenbach), gedruckt durch Peter Schmid, 1580. Früher Katalog zur Frankfurter Herbstmesse, seit diesem Herbst als Portenbachsche Parallelausgabe zu den Willerschen Katalogen erschienen. Georg Willer, "Buchhändler in Augsburg . gab 1564 den ersten Meßkatalog für die Frankfurter Messe heraus, womit ein allgemeiner Aufschwung des Buchhandels begann. Von da an ließ er immer zur Fasten- und Herbstmesse je einen Katalog herstellen" (Lex. des ges. Buchwesens III 585). Diese Kataloge revolutionierten als die ersten Verkaufskataloge im eigentlichen Sinn den gesamten Buchhandel. "Before that date printers visiting the fair must have had to write out by hand countless lists of new books to send to their customers: thereafter they could send copies of the fair catalogue to the local booksellers all over Europe, who in turn passed them on to their customers. The fair catalogue was a co-operative effort: the printers coming to the fair sent in advance title-pages of the books they were bringing, so that Willer could arrange them in subject order before printing his catalogue " (Pollard/Ehrman). "(These) catalogues represent the first international bibliographies of a periodic character, attempting to list every six months all new publications issued in Europe, and they can be considered the prototype of today's Books in Print. The books are arranged by subject; for the first time, place, publisher, and date are always mentioned" (Breslauer/Folter).  Breitrandig. Frühe Meßkataloge sind sehr selten.  VD 16, P 4348. Pollard/Ehrmann 77. Breslauer/Folter, B
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Rome, Pietro de' Nobili / Paolo Graziani, 1561 [ca. 1580]. Engraved map, printed from two copper plates (750 x 483 mm). Framed (96: 70 cm). "The first modern map of the Arabian peninsula" (Al-Ankary), here in the extremely rare second state as produced by Paolo Graziani. Still the most sought-after map of the region Gastaldi's two page wall-map served as a model for all further mapping of the peninsula until the 19th century. Gastaldi is regarded as "the most important 16th century Italian cartographer. His maps are very rare, as they were issued separately to order and were not part of an atlas" (Al-Qasimi, 1st ed., p. 23). Gastaldi used various sources including Portolan charts of the region drawn by the 16th-century Portuguese explorers. Many details, such as the coastline of the Arabian Gulf, certain coastal towns, or the peninsula of Qatar, are mapped and named for the first time. It is the most valuable of the early maps of the region. "Although the shape of the peninsula is distorted by modern standards, the Qatar peninsula and Bahrain are both shown - details that are missing on some maps produced up to almost 300 years later" (Stuart McMinn Catalogue). - The present example is a rare variant edition, bearing the imprint of Pietro de Nobilis, a successor of Lafreri in Rome after 1580. Also, above the scale of miles is a further imprint reading: "In Roma appresso Paulo de Graciam." Tooley located only a single example of this state in the Beans collection (now sold). Stefano Bifolco, in his recent census for his upcoming book on Italian Printed Maps from the 16th Cen
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Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1580. 8vo, ff. [12], 403, [1], several ll. within gathering CCC misbound; final blank. Roman and Italic letter, printer's woodcut device on title, floriated and historiated initials. Printing privilege on final recto. Small tear to blank upper margin of title page. A good, clean copy in half vellum over boards c. 1700, early nineteenth-century green and red morocco gilt labels to spine; remains of ties, early ms. marks to front pastedown. Later edition in Italian of Marin Barleti's Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi (1508-1510) by Pietro Rocca, first printed in 1554. Barleti's work was widely read and translated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Marin Barleti (ca. 1450-ca. 1512-13) was a historian and Catholic priest from Shkodra, in Albania. After surviving the siege of Shkodra in 1478, as we learn from De obsidione Scodrensi (1504), he moved to Italy and spent the rest of his life between Rome and Venice. He wrote a lives of the Popes (Compendium vitarum summorum pontificum), but was better known for his extensive History of Scanderbeg, in thirteen books, dedicated to Don Ferrante Castrioti, Scanderbeg's grandchild. The work is the first biography of the famous Albanian hero George Castrioti, called Scanderbeg (1405-1468), who defended Albania against the Turks, and occupies an important place in the histories of the Ottoman Empire. The dedicatory letter is written by Francesco Rocca to the venetian Paolo Contarini in 1568. Focusing on religious and military oratory, including Scanderbeg's, it portrays Scanderbeg as the model Christ
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Fabio & Agostino Zoppini, 1580. 8vo, ff. [12], 403, [1], several ll. within gathering CCC misbound; final blank. Roman and Italic letter, printer's woodcut device on title, floriated and historiated initials. Printing privilege on final recto. Small tear to blank upper margin of title page. A good, clean copy in half vellum over boards c. 1700, early nineteenth-century green and red morocco gilt labels to spine; remains of ties, early ms. marks to front pastedown. Later edition in Italian of Marin Barleti's Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi (1508-1510) by Pietro Rocca, first printed in 1554. Barleti's work was widely read and translated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Marin Barleti (ca. 1450-ca. 1512-13) was a historian and Catholic priest from Shkodra, in Albania. After surviving the siege of Shkodra in 1478, as we learn from De obsidione Scodrensi (1504), he moved to Italy and spent the rest of his life between Rome and Venice. He wrote a lives of the Popes (Compendium vitarum summorum pontificum), but was better known for his extensive History of Scanderbeg, in thirteen books, dedicated to Don Ferrante Castrioti, Scanderbeg's grandchild. The work is the first biography of the famous Albanian hero George Castrioti, called Scanderbeg (1405-1468), who defended Albania against the Turks, and occupies an important place in the histories of the Ottoman Empire. The dedicatory letter is written by Francesco Rocca to the venetian Paolo Contarini in 1568. Focusing on religious and military oratory, including Scanderbeg's, it portrays Scanderbeg as the model Christ
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ca.1580-1620. 8°. 93 leaves ((2), 188 pages). Hardcover / Original pigskin. Very good condition with only minor split to upper hinge. Some external wear. Faint dampstain to lower margins. The manuscript seems to be either a compendium of excerpts related to Suarez' „De Simonia" or even an outline of the work. While it looks like a personal selection, a summary of chapters of the writer, the irregular corrrespondence of chapters between the manuscript and the finished work, allows us to speculate on this manuscript being a possible draft. The manuscript is quarto sized in contemporary vellum with the title penned on an upper spine compartment and the number 41 at the foot of the spine. The manuscript has a title page stating ‚De Simonia' which precedes the 93 leaf treatise and is followed by two leaves of ‚Index Capitum, que in hoc continentur tractatu'. The manuscript is in a regular forward sloping scribal hand with between 20 and 25 lines per page. The text is divided into 39 chapters. The Index reads: Index Capitum que in hoc continentur tractatu: I - Quid sit Simonia et uncle dicatur (identical with Chapter I of Suarez' „De Simonia" / II - Affectur divisio Simonie / III - An in peccato simoniae sit tantium malitia contra religionem an etiam contra justitiam (identical with chapter IV of „De Simonia) etc. / XVI An Beneficia Ecclesiastica sint materia Simonia Jure Divina nel Jure Ecclesiastico etc., etc. / Images of the work and the Index on request.
[See full text of Francisco Suarez „De Simonia" in „Theologiae Cursus Completus" - by Jacques Paul Migne (Tomus Decimus-Sep
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N.p. [c. Ming (1580)]. 18 volumes in 20, stab-stitched in slightly later paper covers, worming affecting one or two folios, near fine in two recent folding cases. "Of major importance for their impact on all candidates for higher degrees, and as such on the Confucianism of the next few hundred years, were the compilation (1415) of the Wu-ching ssu-shu ta-ch'uan." (Goodrich & Fang, p. 362). Hu Kuang (1370-1418) was in charge of this compilation, which became so influential in China, and in neighboring Korea and Japan. The four books consist of the Analects of Confucius, the sayings of Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning. This copy from the library of the samurai, swordsman, and essayist Matsuura Seizan (1760-1841), with his seal in each volume.

1580. Plate: 'Pons Segoviae in Hispania' (The Segovian Bridge in Spain). It shows the bridge, spanning a river, and various groups of people on both banks. One man is leading a donkey, while another is watering a donkey from the river. A city can be seen in the background. Original copperplate etching/engraving on a verge type watermarked hand laid paper. Description: This engraving originates from 'Ruinarum Varii Prospectus, Ruriumque Aliquot Delineationes', a series of engravings that shows various places in the Mediterranean region, published circa 1580. Bibliography: Hollstein 37 i/ii.Artists and Engravers: Engraved by Philip Galle (1537-1612) after Hendrick van Cleve III (1525-1589). Condition: Very good given age. A tiny burn-hole in the miggle of the image. Narrow margins. General age related toning and occasional light foxing, please study scan carefully. Storage location: RC-C1-33 The overall size is ca. 9.6 x 6.9 inch. The image size is ca. 9.5 x 6.4 inch. The overall size is ca. 24.4 x 17.4 cm. The image size is ca. 24.2 x 16.3 cm.